Prune gatherer



Feb. 2 192s. 1,571,298

S. PAVLOFF PRUNE GATHERER Filed August 26 1922 2 shegtsheet 1 S. PAVLOFF Feb. 2.-

PRUNE GATHERER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed August 2e, 1922 INVENTOR.

Patented F eb. 2, 1926.

. 1,511,298 Unirse :STATES PATENT-onlne SrEBnEN ravtorr, F CAMAS, WASH1NGTON- PRUTNE GATHERER.

`Application led August 26, 1922. Serial No. 584,462.

To all who/1L t may concern.'

Be it known that I, STEPHEN PAvLoFF. a citizen of the United States, residing at Camas, in the county of Clark and State of lVashington, have invented ay new and useiul Prune Gatherer, ot which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in prune gatherers in which a canvas hopper on a hand truck is disposed under a prune tree.

The usual procedure in gathering prunes is first, to shake the prunes to the ground and then pick them up again and place them in a boX.

The objects of my invention are:

First, to furnish a mechanism which gathers the prunes en masse as they are shaken off the tree.

Second, to prevent the prunes from getting soiled by contact with the ground.

Third, to save the time wasted in gather ing each individual prune.

Fourth, to construct a mechanism which can be quickly set up or taken down, and which can easily be transported from one place to another.

Further objects and advantages are to be found in the construction and arrangement of parts as will be described hereinafter in the specification and particularly pointed out in the appended claims:

I attain these objects with the mecha'- nism illustrated in the accompanying' drawn ing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view ot' the entire mecha.- nism.

Fig. 2 is a side view of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a rea-r end view of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is al detail of an extensible supporting post with part of the canvas hopper attached thereto.

Fig. 5 shows in detail the manner of attaching the extensible supporting post to the frame.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

The wheels of the hand truck are designated by the numeral 1. Mounted on these wheels is a frame 2 to which are attached the supporting posts 3. The manner of connecting the posts to the frame is illustrated in Fig. 5 where it is shown that the lower half of the hinge 4 is attached to the frame while to the upper half of the hinge as at 6 is pvotally mounted the Isup porting post 3,

On the upper half of the hinge is a curved slot 5 which throughout its extent is concentric to the pivotal point 6. A thumb Screw 7, extending through slot and post, enables the latter either to be secured in an upright position or it occasion requires to be swung against the frame 2 as shown by the dotted lines 3 in Fig. 5. The reason for employing a hinge 4 instead of a rigid bracket is that the upright post can be swung 'farther outward when desired.

To increase the effective gathering area of my device each post is equipped with an extension leg` 8 which is held in position by means of the clamps 9 shown in Fig. 4 or by any other means suitable. The top oi the extension leg should be equipped with a pulley 10; a cord 11 leads over the pulley, and this cord has at one end a. hook which is to be hooked into the rings 12 of the canvas hopper 13. The other end of the cord is fastened in any suitable way to the frame as shown at 14 in Fig. 4. The box 15 which is to contain the prunes is placed under the bottom orifice of the hopper and preferably so that the hand truck can be moved without disturbing the filled box.

One hand truck may, but two hand trucks are preferably employed, one on each side of the tree and the adjoining edges of the canvas hopper are buttoned together as shown at 16 in Fig. 3 to form a collar around the trunk 1T ot the tree. Such portion of the upper part of the canvas hopper as is not actually needed may be folded inwardly as indicated by the numeral 18 in Fig. 4.

fter the gathering underneath one tree is completed the two hoppers are separated from each other and the hand trucks are shifted to another tree either with or without dismantling the remaining hopper structure. If it is desired to transport the trucks over a long distance, a horse may be put between the tongues 19 of the hand trucks, but in that case the hand trucks should be joined by a removable bridge 20 between the frames at the front and rear (see Fig. 3). Said bridge may consist simply of a staple or of any other suitable device connecting the two framesf Having thus described my invention, it will be seen that my objects have been accomplished, and, though I have shown the preferred form of` construct-ion, I reserve 159 myself the right to make minor changes.

y2 Y Y l 1,571,298

providing I do not violate the spirit and half of each hinge, a curved slot-l in the upper l0 principle of my invention` half of each hinge said slot being concentric I claim: to the pivotal point between post and hinge, In a prune gathererTthe combination of a a thumb screw holding the posts to the hinge canvas hopper, posts with extension legs at the desired position within the slot, and a supporting the upper edge of the lhopper, :a hand truck to support the fra-me. 15 frame at the lower ends of the `posts,vr a A'Signed by me at Portland, Oregon, this hinge between seid frame and each post,-said 18th day of August, 1922. posts being pivotally connected to the upper STEPHEN PAVLOFF. 

